Ripple has agreed to pay $50 million of the originally ordered $125 million fine to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), journalist Eleanor Terrett posted on X (formerly Twitter) on March 25.
Citing Ripple's chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty, Terrett added that last week, the payments firm also decided to drop its cross-appeal against the SEC as the regular agreed to drop its appeal “without conditions.”
The SEC will also ask the U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres to lift the "obey the law" injunction she imposed on Ripple.
Regarding the fine, the SEC will keep $50 million and Ripple will collect the balance of $75 million from the originally ordered fine of $125 million, Alderoty said. The funds are already deposited in an interest-bearing escrow, Ripple counsel added.
The move remains subject to a commission vote, final documentation, and usual court procedures. Once it proceeds past these steps, the resolution will bring to an end the long legal battle between Ripple and the SEC.
It was on Dec. 22, 2020 that the SEC sued Ripple for alleged securities violations worth $1.3 billion in the sale of XRP tokens. The payments firm counter-argued that XRP digital assets cannot be categorized as securities.
The settlement is part of the broader pro-crypto approach the SEC has adopted after President Donald Trump took over the White House in January 2025.
Note that Alderoty personally donated $300,000 in XRP to Trump's presidential campaign in June 2024. Once Trump won, Ripple Labs donated $5 million in XRP to his inaugural committee — one of the largest corporate donations to the fund.
The XRP token briefly rose 1% within an hour of the latest announcement before settling on $2.45 at press time, as per Kraken’s price feeds.